CANBERRA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced a push to cut the nation's smoking rate to below 10 percent by 2025.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Health Minister Greg Hunt revealed a 20 million Australian dollar (13.5 million U.S. dollar) strategy to drive down the rate of Australians who smoke every day.
He said that the strategy would focus on bringing down the smoking rate of indigenous Australians.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) National Health Survey, 13.8 percent of Australians aged 18 and over smoked every day as of 2017-18, down from 23.8 percent in 1995.
While about 2.6 million adults smoke every day nationwide, a further 1.4 percent of Australians smoke less frequently.
"In many cases some of the worst smoking rates in the country are in Indigenous Australia, up to 40 percent," Hunt said on Wednesday.
"We want to work very closely in targeted programs with Indigenous communities to dramatically reduce the rate of youth uptake, and provide for those in the middle of life to support them to stop or bring down their smoking."
The ABS survey found that 16.5 percent of men smoke every day compared with 11.1 percent of females.
The largest fall in the smoking rate since 1995 has been among those aged between 18 and 34.
Hunt also announced a plan to boost mental health care, promising that it would be rated equally with physical health for the first time.
"We know that half of all symptoms of mental illness begin before the age of 14, and that neuropsychiatric conditions are the leading cause of disability in young people," he said.
"If untreated, these conditions severely influence how children develop, and how they do at school and in life."
